Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Spiros Latsis

Dr. Spiro J. Latsis (Greek: Σπύρος Λάτσης; born 1946 in Athens) is a Greek businessman with a fortune of US$9.1 billion. He ranked 51st on Forbes's 2006 World's Billionaires list. He is the son of the Greek shipping magnate, John Latsis, who died in 2003.

The family's largest holding is its EFG Bank European Financial Group in Luxembourg, a banking conglomerate with two main banking holdings that operate in many jurisdictions. The Group holds over 40% of EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA listed in Greece as well as over 40% of EFG International listed in Switzerland.

Spiro Latsis graduated with a PhD in philosophy from the London School of Economics. The Latsis family fortune, managed by Spiros Latsis, includes more than 40% in EFG Eurobank Ergasias, the second largest bank in Greece, and more than 30% in Hellenic Petroleum, a major petroleum player in Southern Europe, through his ownership of Paneuropean Oil and Industrial Holdings S.A.. The Latsis group also controls Lamda Development, a real estate group based in Athens. Lamda Development projects include The Mall Athens, which opened in 2005, and Golden Hall Mall, also in Athens.

Latsis invited the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso, who had been a student friend at the London School of Economics, to be a guest on his yacht a month before the Commission approved €10.3 million Greek state aid for Latsis' shipping company; but the approval had been given by the previous European Commission, before Durão Barroso had succeeded to its presidency.

In 2006 Mr. Latsis received an honorary doctorate from Witten/Herdecke University in Witten, Germany.